If you are a teacher, you can get away with a lot, including explicit sexting and even cuddling with a student, and still keep your job.

Toronto Teacher Richard Burdett was suspended after authorities discovered he was in a sexually charged cyber relationship with one of his students.

By:Kevin DonovanStaff Reporter, Published on Sun Oct 02 2011

If you are a teacher, you can get away with a lot and keep your job.

Toronto high school drama teacher Richard Burdett wrote more than 1,300 intimate, sexually charged instant messages to a female high school student, including a vivid description of how he had dreamt of performing oral sex on her.

On a Grade 11 and 12 school trip to England, Burdett also brought four pajama-clad female students into his dormitory bedroom and cuddled on his bed with them in an activity he called “spooning.”

Later, telling one of the girls his wife would be away for most of July, the then 40-year-old Burdett messaged, “We can throw a little spoonfest here if you want.”

It is likely that this case lead to the Ontario College of Teachers’ warning earlier this year of the dangers of social media contact between teacher and student.

For Burdett’s breaches of trust, the Toronto District School Board handed him a 30-day unpaid suspension in 2007. Burdett was then transferred out of his high school and sent to a teaching post at Toronto’s Adult Education Centre while his case meandered through the teachers’ watchdog system (the Ontario College of Teachers).

In February of 2011, Burdett was given a 12-month suspension but told that if he completed a “boundary violation” course he could be back in class by September. He is now listed as a member in “good standing” and is cleared to teach again.

Burdett did not respond to repeated phone calls, emails or visits to either his home or a photography studio he rents. He returned from a summer in France in late August and the Star could not determine where or if he is teaching today.

Meanwhile, Burdett is pursuing another career — model and “boudoir” photography out of a photo studio near King and Bathurst Sts.

Some of the photos the Star has seen on his website suggest some of the females on the site are teenagers.

In the world of teacher discipline, Burdett falls between those driven from the profession for egregious sexual exploitation and those teachers the watchdog determines have committed violations minor enough to warrant secret discipline. (They are not named in the watchdog’s quarterly publication.)

Burdett is in the middle of the spectrum. He was found guilty of professional misconduct and named in the “Blue Pages,” a section of Professionally Speaking, the watchdog’s quarterly newsletter.

The Star’s investigation found great disparity in how the College disciplines teachers. Burdett was named and suspended for his sexually charged and inappropriate conduct. Other teachers who treated students cruelly, verbally and sometimes hurt them physically were not named and received only a reprimand. A principal and vice-principal who did not report allegations of child abuse to the children’s aid society, as required by law, were not named.

The College requires all teachers to abide by ethical standards. It does not spell out prohibited activities, but requires teachers, “in their position of trust, (to) demonstrate responsibility in their relationships with students, parents, guardians, colleagues, educational partners, other professionals, the environment and the public.”

Documents that formed part of his disciplinary case show a series of inappropriate contacts with students at a Toronto school. The name of the school and other details (such as dates and information on the England trip, and many pages of emails) were blacked out by the watchdog when it released the files to the Star.

Burdett was certified as a teacher in 1991. He is qualified to teach English and dramatic arts.

During the 2006-2007 school year, Burdett became very close with some students. A lengthy printout of instant messages filed as part of his discipline case shows a series of late-night and weekend chats with Burdett and one girl who appears to be in Grade 12. The messages the Star obtained begin in February 2007, but it is clear they already had a long-standing friendship; it is not clear when the friendship began. Burdett told his psychiatrist he was not “grooming” the student for eventual sexual contact.

In one series of messages from February, the student asked Burdett if he had every considered suicide. Burdett said no and the girl responded that she sometimes imagined jumping in front of a train. The two continued chatting into the night. Burdett called her “baby” and there was discussion of a sleepover at a friend’s house the girl wanted to avoid. Burdett told her she could come over.

“You can sleep at my place. In my bed with wifey. Then she can come in and have this look on her face,” Burdett wrote.

In another series of messages, Burdett asked the girl, “are you wearing clothes?” She replied that she was walking around in a push-up bra and low-cut shirt.

In late February, Burdett and a female teacher took a group of 20 Grade 11 and 12 students to England. The purpose of the school trip is not described. In an agreed statement of facts, Burdett admits that “approximately” four female students, including the girl he had been messaging with, came into his room and he “spooned” with them on the bed. The girls were in “pajamas” and Burdett was clothed, according to the agreed statement. No other details were provided in the college document.

Back in Toronto, Burdett and the girl continued their late-night messaging. Burdett lamented that his life “sucks.” In one series of messages on a Friday evening, he told the girl that he had an explicit dream. She said she would delete the information. Burdett asked if the girl was home alone. She replied that her father was reading the newspaper in the kitchen.

Burdett said he dreamt that they were at a cottage together. The dream was “sinful really, but insanely real,” Burdett wrote. “It involved me going down on you at a cottage and everything seemed real, taste, texture, etc.” Then Burdett said the dream woke him up. He then apologized for providing “too much info.”

“Delete this,” Burdett typed.

“Just did,” the student replied.

“Man, it was soo (sic) real,” Burdett typed. Over the weekend the messaging continued with discussions of the student’s breasts, pubic hair and the dream.

Other conversational topics included the girl’s sex life, musings about abortion (she told Burdett if she ever needed one she would get him to drive her) and Burdett’s comment that when he drove another student home he got the distinct impression that she wanted to have sex with him. The student he was messaging with commented that the new girl wanted to “hop on the Burdett bandwagon.”

The messages provided to the Star ended in April 2007. The mother of the girl discovered the relationship and reported Burdett. In his agreed statement of facts, Burdett notes that the relationship was not hidden from other teachers or students.

In the agreed statement of facts, the college and Burdett state that there was no sexual, physical contact with the student. A psychiatrist who assessed Burdett said he did not suffer from any mental defect or “sexual deviancy.” The doctor said it would be “purely speculative” to conclude that a sexual relationship would have resulted from ongoing communication with the student.

In his assessment by the psychiatrist, Burdett said the student he became close with was, in his mind, more like a “colleague.” He said the school he taught at was unique in that there were typically “closer relationships between teachers and students” than other schools.

Several months after Burdett was disciplined, the Ontario College of Teachers published a policy warning teachers to “avoid exchanging private texts” with students.

Burdett “acknowledged that his behaviour was inappropriate and represented a significant lack of judgment,” his College decision says.

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